Power Of Persuasion

The Power of Persuasion

In essence, persuasion occurs when the persuader (individual or group) successfully, using figurative words, images, and sounds deliberately convinces an individual or group to change or alter their beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Significantly, there are various methods in which people use to persuade others. When these methods of persuasion are implemented effectively, people are more likely to be vulnerable to persuasion than they could possibly image. Persuasion is achieved through believability of the persuader combined with expertise and trustworthiness. An effective communicator adopts the three elements of ethos, pathos, and logos to win over the audience. Using the model of persuasion in
An effective communicator establishes credibility early on with the audience. Ethos is referring to the persuader’s morals, principles and their character. For example, the audience wants the persuader to have an innate capacity of being honest along with distinct knowledge on the subject at hand. Authority is based on the experience or role of the persuader. For instance, an addiction counselor is regarded as more reliable pointing out relapse triggers of addiction than a math professor. Logos is when the persuader pleas to the audience’s sense of logic and reasoning. The persuader must be able to articulate in a manner easy for the audience to understand. In other words, the audience must be able to follow and keep up with the flow of information being presented by the persuader. Further, the persuader must be able to provide evidence to support his/her stance. The more evidence supporting the persuader’s viewpoint, the more effective is the plea of reason, which ultimately persuades the audience. “The listener element is pathos. Pathos refers to persuasion based on an emotional appeal to the audience” (Weresh, 2012, p.232). When implementing effective pathos, the audience is more likely able to feel empathy and sympathy. The use of effective pathos persuasion has the propensity to have an audience feeling any emotion the persuader directs to the audience. For instance, the persuader can provoke an audience to feel sadden, anger, fear, and disgust. According to Poggi (2005) “persuasion is a way to influence people, that is, one of the many ways an agent A causes another agent B to have some goal that B did not have previously, or to abandon one previously held” (p.299). Understandably, an audience is more apt to be persuaded by an attractive persuader than